A suicide bomber killed 18 police and civilians on Thursday in Afghanistan’s western province of Farah, officials said, according to Reuters. It appears that the incident happened in a bazaar next to a police station in Del Aram district of Farah. Other 15 people were wounded.

“So far, 18 people, including police and civilians, have been killed,” Farah’s governor Rohul Amin told Reuters by phone. He also said the bomber was wearing an all-enveloping burqa robe that Afghan women usually wear.

“I know that 18 people have been killed, but do not know whether the bomber was a man or woman or was wearing burqa or not,” Juman Khan, a police officer from Del Aram, said, according to the same source.

Two police vehicles were destroyed due to the attack.

In recent months, assaults shot up against security forces, coalition, and NATO-led troops in Afghanistan. Authorities accused the Islamic militia that once ruled most of Afghanistan [the Taliban ] and its al Qaeda loyalists.

Taliban’s’ spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf, declared the attack was carried out by a member of the group. He also mentioned the bomber was a man.

According to State Department reports in April, the Taliban strengthened their military and technical capabilities.

Farah province is in the far southwest of the country, and id adjoins Helmand province, where British soldiers encountered fierce resistance from Taliban fighters over the last 18 months.

At least 1,200 people died in insurgency-related violence in 2008, according to the Associated Press. The U.N. claims more than 8,000 people, most of them militants, were killed in insurgency-related violence in 2007.